LynchPin Support - Case Study for Mountain View Childcare
Key points :
New Vision, New Organisation Structure
Grant Funding, Business Planning & Strategy
Improved Quality Child Care Provision & Secure Future
Background
Mountain View Childcare is a childcare provider within the growing market town of Cockermouth, Cumbria, North West England. It currently provides care for over 58 children and includes both a pre-school and breakfast and after school provision for primary aged school children. It has provided excellent care over the years for hundreds of families from within Cockermouth town and the surrounding villages it serves. It is positioned next to St Joseph’s Primary School, and although run as a separate entity, has a close working relationship with the school. Many of the children from the school benefit from Mountain View Childcare, especially its popular breakfast and after school clubs.
The private owner decided that it no longer wanted to carry on running the business, and therefore a solution needed to be agreed as to how the childcare provision could continue to run on the site. It was deemed as not only a valuable asset to the community, but for many, an essential asset that needed to carry on for the benefit of the local primary schools in the area and the children within the community.
Challenge
The main challenge was to come up with a plan as to how best to go forward with the Childcare provision, and it was here that Nicola Lynch began to help plan the best way forward for Mountain View. The challenge was to secure the future of Mountain View Childcare to enable it to work financially and sustain itself as a standalone organisation. Nicola looked to plan and establish a Social Enterprise, based on her knowledge and skills she was able to look at what was needed with clarity, structure and vision. Working closely with the other new Directors including the Head Teacher at St Joseph’s Primary School, Nicola was able to spear-head a new direction and strategic plan for the future of Mountain View Childcare.
Solution
Mountain View required service and financial remodelling in response to several fundamental changes based on the new ownership, operation as a Social Enterprise and new regulations. This has required a constant rebalancing, reprioritising of organisational aims and required on-going support, grant funding and work right across the business from strategic planning, HR management, financial planning and liaison with the community. Nicola has brought her range of skill sets across these areas to the table and enabled the plan to come to fruition successfully and managed well.
Various grants to support the organisation, bringing in over £60,000 to date, has enabled Mountain View Childcare to continue to exist, thrive and develop a bright future. Nicola Lynch secured funding from a number different areas including The Sellafield Foundation and the Cockermouth Community Foundation amongst others. Her knowledge and expertise enabled the organisation to be set up as a Social Enterprise, and the small community interest company is now run as a successful organisation. It needs to be a viable entity in order to work financially plus attract and keep excellent staff, provide the right equipment and curriculum for the children and make sure they are operating within the guidelines and law of a nursery provision.
Mountain View Childcare is a childcare provider within the growing market town of Cockermouth, Cumbria, North West England. It currently provides care for over 58 children and includes both a pre-school and breakfast and after school provision for primary aged school children. It has provided excellent care over the years for hundreds of families from within Cockermouth town and the surrounding villages it serves. It is positioned next to St Joseph’s Primary School, and although run as a separate entity, has a close working relationship with the school. Many of the children from the school benefit from Mountain View Childcare, especially its popular breakfast and after school clubs.
The private owner decided that it no longer wanted to carry on running the business, and therefore a solution needed to be agreed as to how the childcare provision could continue to run on the site. It was deemed as not only a valuable asset to the community, but for many, an essential asset that needed to carry on for the benefit of the local primary schools in the area and the children within the community.
Challenge
The main challenge was to come up with a plan as to how best to go forward with the Childcare provision, and it was here that Nicola Lynch began to help plan the best way forward for Mountain View. The challenge was to secure the future of Mountain View Childcare to enable it to work financially and sustain itself as a standalone organisation. Nicola looked to plan and establish a Social Enterprise, based on her knowledge and skills she was able to look at what was needed with clarity, structure and vision. Working closely with the other new Directors including the Head Teacher at St Joseph’s Primary School, Nicola was able to spear-head a new direction and strategic plan for the future of Mountain View Childcare.
Solution
Mountain View required service and financial remodelling in response to several fundamental changes based on the new ownership, operation as a Social Enterprise and new regulations. This has required a constant rebalancing, reprioritising of organisational aims and required on-going support, grant funding and work right across the business from strategic planning, HR management, financial planning and liaison with the community. Nicola has brought her range of skill sets across these areas to the table and enabled the plan to come to fruition successfully and managed well.
Various grants to support the organisation, bringing in over £60,000 to date, has enabled Mountain View Childcare to continue to exist, thrive and develop a bright future. Nicola Lynch secured funding from a number different areas including The Sellafield Foundation and the Cockermouth Community Foundation amongst others. Her knowledge and expertise enabled the organisation to be set up as a Social Enterprise, and the small community interest company is now run as a successful organisation. It needs to be a viable entity in order to work financially plus attract and keep excellent staff, provide the right equipment and curriculum for the children and make sure they are operating within the guidelines and law of a nursery provision.
Clare Child, Director at Mountain View Childcare, comments: “Nicola was fundamental in stabilising the organisation and providing us with real vision for the future. She has brought a unique set of skills and proficiencies to support Mountain View Childcare in so many different areas. She is highly proficient, trustworthy and professional in all her work, while always maintaining the required confidentiality of an educational setting. Nicola is not driven by financial gain, but by the need to provide support and guidance. The grant funding that she has sourced for us has been invaluable in terms of delivering a number of our strategic objectives.”
Benefits
The new vision and plan for Mountain View Childcare has benefitted the organisation in so many ways. Here are some of the main benefits that Nicola has ensured has come to fruition and provided a stable and secure foundation on which to build:
The new vision and plan for Mountain View Childcare has benefitted the organisation in so many ways. Here are some of the main benefits that Nicola has ensured has come to fruition and provided a stable and secure foundation on which to build:
- Now a financially viable and secure Childcare provider, set up as a Social Enterprise, currently rated as ‘GOOD’ by OFSTED
- A vision and strategy that sets it in good stead for future growth and development
- A strong and happy current customer base that is growing - enabling round the clock quality care for pre-school and primary aged children
- Through grant funding and working with the Friends of St Joseph’s, a new adventure playground is now installed that can be utilised by both Mountain View children as well as the St Joseph’s primary school children
- Re-configured cloakroom area and disabled facilities via grant funding
- Comprehensive re-writing of policies and procedures for the efficient running of the organisation and keeping up to date with latest policy
- Alterations and renovations to layout of the building and provision of age appropriate and new equipment due to funding granted to Mountain View
- New purpose built office area, an important area for confidential paper work to be carried out by staff
- Detailed risk-assessment reports and updates to current systems and procedures
- New staff equipment for the efficient running of the organisation including lap top and IT infrastructure
- Aesthetically the area is a nicer place to work and play, and has up-to-date equipment and resources in order for the staff to deliver the best possible child care provision and education to the children that attend.
Teresa Readman, Head Teacher at St Joseph’s Primary School, comments on Nicola’s invaluable support, direction and vision when working with Mountain View Childcare: “Nicola has set very high standards in terms of her work and dedication. She has high aspirations for Mountain View, and as a result has always achieved results. The real tangible benefits speak for themselves in terms of business knowledge and grant funding expertise amongst everything else she has managed. You can certainly put your trust in her to do a job and she just gets on with it.”
“I’ve always found that she gets to grip with the issues of an organisation quickly, and really gets into the shoes of those people working there. She has a wonderful gift of managing everything with empathy and with people in mind, while keeping both a business and community vision. She can think short, medium and long term and makes sure decisions are made for the right reasons,” Teresa Readman, adds.
Future
The future is very exciting for Mountain View as the child care provision is highly valued and numbers are increasing all the time. There are a number of initiatives that will need to be considered going forward, and as with any child care provider it continues to strive to update its facilities and equipment to provide the very best for the children.
The future is very exciting for Mountain View as the child care provision is highly valued and numbers are increasing all the time. There are a number of initiatives that will need to be considered going forward, and as with any child care provider it continues to strive to update its facilities and equipment to provide the very best for the children.
Teresa Readman, added: “Nicola has paved the way for continuing to keep high standards at Mountain View Childcare. She has been inspirational in keeping everyone motivated and therefore I’m confident that we can continue the high standards of work going forward. She has set the platform in which we can all utilise for future growth and development. We don’t want to rest on our laurels, and there is still a lot of hard work to keep going with. No doubt we will be calling on Nicola Lynch and her company LynchPin Support to provide further guidance and consultancy when required. We’ve loved working together for so long, and have had such an excellent working relationship. We want to maintain everything that Nicola has created for us here in Cockermouth.”
Clare Child, Director at Mountain View Childcare, concludes: “A real strength is that she isn’t afraid to challenge decisions or ideas and will always try to get the best result – with the children and staff at Mountain View always at the forefront of her mind. I’m in no doubt that we will be working with Nicola again in the future, her skill set is quite unique and with a real mixture of business, education, community and social enterprise knowledge – it would be very difficult to find someone with that mixture of skills, as well as her already in-depth knowledge of our organisation. We look forward to an exciting future for Mountain View Childcare.”
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For further information about any of these organisations please visit
www.st-josephs-cockermouth.cumbria.sch.uk www.mountainviewchildcare.org www.lynchpinsupport.co.uk |
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